Northwest Indian Law & Business Advisor : Northwest Indian & Tribal Lawyer & Attorney : Williams Kastner Law Firm : Tacoma, Seattle, Portland

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Creating jobs was the overriding subject of Wednesday’s State of the Union Address. The President acknowledged that job creating and growth will be the primary focus of his administration in 2010, in order to restore prosperity to America’s middle class. While the President acknowledged that the national unemployment rate of ten perecent was unusually high, he did not mention that in some areas of Indian Country, the unemployment rate has consistenly hovered at 50 to 70 percent for many years. Senator Dorgan and fellow members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs conducted a hearing Thursday that launched a dialogue addressing the high unemployment in Indian Country. The panel of witnesses at this hearing included key leaders in the federal government, tribal government, and several corporations based in Alaska, but did not include business owners from privately-held tribal member-owned entities. As many economists have detailed in reports and the President stated Wednesday night, government programs designed to bolster the nation’s small businesses will help set the country on a speedier path to an economic recovery. Nationwide, small businesses compose about 50 percent of the country’s total number of business enterprises.

Small businesses deserve a place at the table both in the nation’s dialogue on economic recovery and in the dialogue addressing Indian Country’s battle with high unemployment. Williams Kastner represents one such company—Sister Sky—which took the initiative to draft and send its comments to Capitol Hill for inclusion in a discussion on how to build commerce within Indian Country. Sister Sky is a Native women-owned company with headquarters on the Spokane Indian Reservation. They provide high-quality natural bath products and employ a workforce largely composed of Native Americans in a community where jobs are scarce. The company owners believe that its business success can be useful to fostering job creation within tribal communities. Sister Sky executives crafted their comments to lawmakers in D.C.with the desire to participate in a dialogue that will be both good for businesses nationwide and good for their local tribal community. Following Sister Sky’s lead, tribal entrepreneurs and tribal-owned entities should direct their comments on building sustained tribal economies to members of Congress and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs so that their insights may be included in this important economic policy discussion.

In addition to Sister Sky’s participation in plans for economic revitalization, the Pathways to Prosperity Program, operated by the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, is sponsoring a career fair on February 4, 2010, in order to connect employers with job seekers. The career fair is scheduled to be held at the Daybreak Star Indian Center located in Discovery Park, Seattle. There will be state, county, and tribal governments present to recruit potential applicants. This event has, in the past, also attracted the likes of non-tribal businesses such as REI and Starbucks so it should prove useful for all types of applicants seeking work.
 

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On Wednesday evening, the President is scheduled to deliver his annual State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress as the nation watches live on TV. The President delivers his address amidst an economic crisis which is compelling Americans to look to the President to provide specific and directed policy initiatives that will help create more jobs and bolster the country’s economy. After a severe and protracted defeat of the health care reform legislation, combined with the retirements of several key Democrats who were up for reelection in 2010, the nation is poised to hear solutions to real problems facing America’s families. In response, the President has announced that he will seek an immediate freeze on the federal budget as it relates to discretionary spending programs. The President will likely go into detail about this new initiative during his address as well as announce how he intends to pursue policies designed to spark the nation’s stalled economic engine.

As the President’s budget proposal currently stands, the federal budget would amount to $1.3 trillion for Fiscal Year 2010. At the end of 2009, the public-held debt stood at $7.5 trillion, and it is projected to double by 2020 if all laws and policies remain intact. The most recent report issued by the Congressional Budget Office indicates that the American economy will continue its slow climb out of the recession, with low job growth, stagnant growth in the financial markets, and elevated home foreclosures lingering. Federal sources of revenue are expected to increase slightly as several tax provisions expire in 2010, including the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, and the Making Work Pay tax credit. The $1.3 trillion budget that will be at the center of the President’s address includes $687 billion for national defense ($130 billion in 2010 and another $50 billion a year from 2011 to 2019 for the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) and $562 billion for non-defense programs.

The reductions recommended in the President’s budget include discretionary spending in energy (48.8% reduction); education, training, employment, and social services (14.8% reduction); and natural resources and the environment (7.4% reduction). Many federal programs supporting American Indians are discretionary spending measures and would likely be reduced per Obama’s new budget. Some programs which are completely eliminated or reduced under the President’s budget, as well as a list of government departments that will face steep budget reductions, include: public broadcasting grants, the Department of Agriculture, public telecom facilities, the Department of Commerce, rural community facilities, the Department of Health and Human Services, state grants given to establish safe and drug-free schools and communities, the Department of Education, water infrastructure earmarks, the Environmental Protection Agency, work incentive grants, the Department of Labor, and targeted funding for Alaska Native Village infrastructure, ($9 million reduction).

Ultimately, Congress must take into consideration the current economic situation when debating the proposals set forth in the President’s address. Lawmakers will enter the appropriations process with some sobering facts and a policy proposal which will likely force them to play with the hand they have been dealt.